Youth Making Change (YMC) is a teen-led grant-making and leadership development program. Led by two facilitators who are previous YMC board members, each board (one meets in Santa Maria and one meets in Santa Barbara) will carry out an entire grant cycle

By attending meetings twice a month, board members will outreach to youth-led groups in their community, receive and read grant applications, conduct interviews of applicants and make decisions as a group about which projects to give funding to. At the end of each cycle, the YMC boards will each grant up to $15,000 to youth-led projects helping to address issues affecting young people in Santa Barbara County.

The goal is for board members to learn about philanthropy and grant-making as they discuss and analyze current issues facing young people in Santa Barbara County. Ultimately, board members will build their personal and community connections and develop important leadership skills such as meeting planning, meeting facilitation, outreach, and public speaking, program planning, proposal evaluation, and individual and group decision-making. “

Youth are encouraged to apply regardless of race, gender, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, academic status, physical/mental ability, ethnicity, language spoken, or immigration status. Youth are selected from different neighborhoods, schools, grades, academic levels, and life experiences.

Each YMC board member must commit to be part of the board from July 2022 to May 2023 and:

• Attend meetings twice a month (Santa Maria: 1st & 3rd Wednesday, Santa Barbara: 1st & 3rd Thursdays)*
• Be between the ages of 13 and 19
• Live or go to school in Santa Barbara County
• Attend a training on July 23rd, 2022. (please contact [email protected] if there is a schedule conflict)
• Be able to work with a diverse group of teens, and learn about social justice topics
• Once accepted, we require submission of vaccine verification or bi-weekly negative test results to attend in-person meetings.

*Other meetings include two additional Saturday meetings. There is also some independent work between meetings.

Thank you for your interest, the applications deadline has passed.
Applicants, stay tuned for contact from our YMC team.